Tim Kobe & John Bielenberg to Keynote 2013 SEGD Conf.

Tim Kobe’s company Eight Inc., translated Apple’s design zeitgeist into a game-changing retail format. John Bielenberg founded rapid ingenuity firm Future and Project M, the platform for creatives inspired to contribute to the greater good. Both have shown how design thinking, fearless creativity, and empathy can be used to make the world a better place. And both will share their experiences and perspectives at Above the Fog, the 2013 SEGD Conference June 6-8 in San Francisco.

Kobe and Bielenberg are part of an international roster of designers, makers, and thinkers converging at the 2013 SEGD Conference. The conference program is designed to invite participants to venture Above the Fog to explore how they can use not only their design skills, but also their empathy, curiosity, and ingenuity to connect people and places.

“Above the Fog is designed to inspire us to seek out the blue sky and find ways to do our best work as designers and human beings,” says Lonny Israel, Associate Director with Skidmore Owings and Merrill and Co-Chair of the 2013 SEGD Conference with Julie Vogel, Principal of Kate Keating Associates. “We’re excited to have keynote speakers like Tim Kobe and John Bielenberg, who in their unique ways dramatically show us how.”

After creating MacWorld for Steve Jobs, Kobe’s design firm was asked to imagine a store where Apple customers could experience the brand and adopt an emerging digital lifestyle. Eight’s work on the Apple stores and in commercial, retail, and hospitality spaces around the globe reflects how the design of public spaces must evolve as our ways of communicating, working, shopping, and learning undergo radical change.

At Future, Bielenberg delights in helping people find the courage and sense of humor to bring their stories, ideas, and ingenuity out into the world—the wilder and crazier, the better. He is also founder of Project M, an immersive program he started in 2003 to inspire and educate young designers, writers, photographers, and filmmakers by proving that their work—especially their “wrongest” thinking—can have significant impact on communities. Project M has developed projects worldwide, from Alabama to Iceland.

The 2013 Conference will be headquartered at the historic Fairmont San Francisco Hotel atop Nob Hill. But that’s just the starting point: Participants will explore design projects and attend social events all over the city—from Golden Gate Bridge Park and the Presidio to new jewels on the waterfront to the East Bay and beyond.

The annual SEGD Conference is the only international design event focused on visual communications in the built environment. The three-day conference features a combination of inspirational speakers, stimulating panel sessions, hands-on workshops, and project tours that encourage participants to experience the city. Speakers, sessions, tours, and networking events are designed for the global community of professionals who plan, design, and build experiences connecting people to place.

The 2013 SEGD Conference is happening in SEGD’s fortieth anniversary year, says Clive Roux, CEO, providing an excellent opportunity to explore how the discipline will evolve in the next forty years. “Now, as the world continues to experience rapid and major technology shifts, our field will be particularly impacted. These shifts have radically changed communication and products—and they are poised to exert a much bigger influence on the built environment in the next forty years as we see the dawn and implementation of intelligent environments.

“There is no question in my mind that the next forty years will be exciting, disruptive, and life-changing, not only for our members, but also for the users of the incredible designs they will bring into the world.“